American Library Association
Association of College and Research Libraries
ANSS CURRENTS
The Newsletter of the ACRL Anthropology & Sociology Section
Vol. 18, No. 2 ISSN 0888-5559 November 2003
Message From the Chair
James Haug
Owing to the efforts of its officers, committee chairs, discussion group conveners, and other participants over the past year, ANSS successfully served as a dialogic medium for communicating information and ideas about library services for anthropology, sociology, and criminal justice and criminology. Special thanks should go to the ANSS Past Chair, Royce Kurtz, who chaired the Executive Committee and the Conference Program Planning Committee; to Anna DeMiller who headed last year’s Review and Planning Committee and the Nominating Committee; to Katherine Whitson, ANSS Secretary; to Stephen Fowlkes, who served as co-chair of the Membership Committee and chaired the Program Planning Committee for Orlando; and also to Joyce Ogburn, for her invaluable service as manager of ANSSWeb.
The bulk of ANSS activity involves the work and dialogues of its committees and discussion groups. The Bibliography Committee completed reviews of Biosis/Biological Abstracts and Age-line. The Publications Committee continued publication of ANSS Currents and management of the ANSS listserv, ANSS-L, and the ANSS website, ANSSWeb. The Review and Planning Committee completed revisions of the ANSS Manual and ANSS By-laws. Final approval of the revisions awaits action by the ACRL Board at Midwinter 2004 and thereafter a vote by all ANSS members. The Anthropology Librarians, the Sociology Librarians, and the Criminal Justice/ Criminology Librarians’ Discussion Groups offered interesting discussions and presentations.
In addition, ANSS sponsored intellectually stimulating programs at ALA Annual conferences. Last summer’s conference in Toronto was the setting for “Oral Tradition and Copyright: Aboriginal Canada in the 21st Century.” Though the number of presenters was whittled away by fears of SARS, the presentation attracted an audience of nearly sixty. For the ALA Conference in Orlando, 2004, ANSS will co-sponsor with the African-American Studies Librarians’ Section, a program devoted to the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, the famous novelist and folklorist who grew
up in a small town near Orlando before moving to New
York where she joined the Harlem Renaissance and studied anthropology under Franz Boas at Columbia University. The program’s title will be “Her Eyes were Watching Humanity: Zora Neale Hurston as Ethnographer, Novelist, and Feminist.”
Furthermore, members of ANSS have engaged in valuable outreach to other professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Other activities look promising. First, I want to form an ANSS Information Literacy Task Force to assess, develop, and implement ways in which ANSS can contribute to ACRL’s plans for improving information literacy. Please contact me if you are interested in joining this task force. Secondly, I encourage anyone who wishes to suggest ideas for feasible activities by ANSS to contact me. Last of all, I want to stress that ANSS desires, needs, and welcomes new members. Please consider volunteering for an ANSS committee. You will find a listing and description of committees on ANSSWeb ( http://www.lib.odu.edu/anss/). To volunteer, contact Wade Kotter, ANSS Vice-Chair/ Chair-Elect or fill-out an online Volunteer Form.
Preliminary Schedule of ANSS Meetings
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CANDIDATES FOR ANSS OFFICES- 2004
Anna L. DeMiller, Chair, Nominating Committee
VICE-CHAIR/CHAIR-ELECT
Shawn W. Nicholson, Michigan State University
Whitson, Katharine A., Univ. of Washington, Bothell
MEMBER-AT-LARGE (2-year term)
Susan Erickson, Vanderbilt University
Lynn Hattendorf Westney, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect Candidates’ Statements:
Nicholson, Shawn W.
Education: Univ. of Northern Iowa, B.A. 1993; Illinois State Univ., M.S., 1995; Univ. of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign, MSLIS, 1998. Present Position: Head, Government Documents and Bibliographer for Sociology and Social Work, Michigan State University, 2003 – present. Previous Position: Bibliographer for Sociology and Social Work and State Documents Librarian, Michigan State Univ., 1999-2003. ALA Divisions: ACRL-ANSS: Sociology Librarian’s Discussion Group, Co-Convener, 2002-present; Membership Committee, Member, 2000-present; Publications Committee, Member and Co-editor of ANSS Currents, 2002-present. Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT): Member. State and Regional Library Association Activities: Government Documents Roundtable of Michigan (GODORTMI), President, 2003-present; GODORTMI, Program Chair, 2002-2003; GODORTMI, Treasurer, 1999-2002. Publications: Bennett, Terrence and Nicholson, S.W. “Interactions between the Academic Business Library and Research Data Services.” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Forthcoming, January 2004; Nicholson, S.W. and Rossman, B. “Planning and Zoning Documents,” IN Local and Regional Government Information: How To Find It, How To Use It, Oryx/ Greenwood Press. In Press; Nicholson, S., Hernandez, J. Cook, M. “Numeric Data Products and Services,” SPEC Kit 263, Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2001; Frank, H, Nicholson, S., Dickson, L. and Miller, T. “The Interview Process,” SPEC Kit 260, Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2000.
Statement of Concern: Building on my experience with the Membership Committee, I believe a large challenge confronting us is reaching the silent members of ANSS. I will work to reach this group by pushing ACRL to share accurate, timely electronic mailing lists, which will allow the Publications and Membership Committees to get our message to this group of interested, but not active members. Additionally, I will further pursue the idea of virtual membership on our committees for those members who cannot attend two conferences per year. Lastly, I will support the efforts of committees to reach out to non-member constituencies that could benefit from an interaction with ANSS. The Liaison and Membership committees are already making great strides in this area. Simply put, we need to continue spreading the word of our programs, publications and the expertise of the membership as a whole. Elect me and I will work to further these and other goals as Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Anthropology and Sociology Section, ACRL.
Whitson, Katharine A.
Education: Univ. of California Berkeley, B.A. 1972; Univ. of Washington, M.Libr., 1992. Present Position: Head, Access Services/Reference Librarian – Campus Library, serving Cascadia Community College & Univ. of Washington, Bothell, 2000 – present. Previous Position: Head, Access Services/Reference Librarian, Univ. of Washington, Bothell, 1997-2000. ALA Divisions: ACRL NMRT: Program Committee, 1998; ACRL NMRT Students to ALA Reception, 1998; ACRL – ANSS Bibliography Committee, 1999-2002; ACRL – ANSS Executive Committee – elected Secretary for 2001-2003. ACRL – ANSS Review and Planning Committee, 2001-2003. LAMA/SASS Circulation Services Committee, 2000-2003 – Presented at ALA Annual – LAMA Pre-conference (One-Stop Shopping – June 2002): Washington State Library Association (WLA) 2000-present; Community College Librarians and Media Specialists (CLAMS), 1999-present. Publications: “Electronic Reserves: Pilot and Evaluation,” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, and Information Supply. v10(3), 2000; “Sociological Abstracts.” [review]. ANSS Currents: The Newsletter of the ACRL Anthropology & Sociology Section, 15(2) November 2000.
Statement of Concern: As the selector for anthropology and folklore at the University of Washington, Bothell and Cascadia Community College, ANSS has given me the opportunity to meet new colleagues, learn more about relevant resources in my field, and find out what innovations are taking place at other institutions. My service as Secretary to the ANSS Executive Committee provided me a better understanding of the missions of both ANSS and ACRL. If elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, one of my goals will be to introduce new librarians to ANSS. I will work toward increasing membership by promoting the interdisciplinary focus of ANSS. Since we are no longer just an anthropology and sociology section, but have recently expanded to include criminology, I believe we can reach out to librarians in multidisciplinary subject areas. If elected, I will do my best to communicate and share ideas that will enhance and promote this Section.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Bibliography Committee
Domenico Bonanni, Chair
The ANSS Bibliography Committee met twice at the ALA Annual meeting in Toronto. The committee discussed, edited, and finalized reviews of the Ageline database reviewed by Valery King, and also the Chicano Database reviewed by James Nalen. The Ageline review will be published in the next edition of ANSS Currents. The Chicano Database will be published in the spring edition of ANSS Currents. The last agenda item on Sunday included a discussion of the current ANSS Bibliography Committee Projects List. As a result of the discussion, some current projects that the committee is considering for review are AATA Online: Art & Archaeology Technical Abstracts and Web of Science.
Conference Planning Program Planning Committee, 2004
Stephen Fowlkes, Chair
Since this program is being conducted jointly with AFAS, the Committee met with Lisa Pillow, chair, and other AFAS members. Fowlkes & Pillow will co-chair this committee through the conference in Orlando. The committee worked on the planned program devoted to celebrating the life and works of Zora Neale Hurston, African-American anthropologist, ethnographer, author, and feminist from the Orlando area. We also talked about the solicitation of additional funding from outside vendors. Stephen Fowlkes plans to contact the ZNH Museum in Eatonville to explore utilizing some of their resources for the program and/or the ANSS tour. Fowlkes & Pillow will be contacting potential speakers, and working on the budget together. Sally Wilson Weimer agreed to work on a bibliography; Joann Jacoby agreed to work on a flyer, and Maggie Dittemore had agreed in advance to work on publicity. We have co-sponsorship agreements with LES and WSS, and Sally volunteered to look into having the Feminist Task Force as another co-sponsor. We agreed that it would be good to have coffee and pastries available, depending on our success in securing donations from vendors; and this will be included in the draft budget to be submitted.
Liaison Committee
Sally Willson Weimer; Susan Bennett White, Co-Chairs
Our charge is to identify organizations and professional bodies active in the fields of anthropology, sociology, and affiliated fields of the social sciences that issue publications. Our committee also seeks to serve as a clearinghouse and communicate with those scholarly and professional organizations. For example, the American Anthropological Association is a scholarly organization that our section has members in who initiated a Scholarly communication Interest group to plan and coordinate programs at the annual AAA meetings. In addition, both Susan and Sally are working on updating the list of organizations and persons to whom we send a copy of the ANSS Currents newsletter each time it is published. We look forward to having new members volunteer to serve on our committee. We welcome section members’ suggestions and ideas to help achieve the goals of the committee. We are eager to build ongoing communications and relationships with the scholarly and professional organizations in anthropology, sociology, and related fields, and hope that we can also work with the Section’s discussion groups in Anthropology, Sociology, and Criminology/Criminal Justice to facilitate those communications and relationships. We want to thank former and current committee members for their leadership and ideas.
Membership Committee
Stephen Fowlkes, Co-Chair
The ACRL push to increase membership was discussed, and we mentioned several activities our committee might pursue to drum up some new members for our own section including: 1) encourage each ANSS member to talk up the section and its activities, publications, etc. to colleagues; 2) promote the section to non-member subscribers of the listserv; and 3) draft a letter for NMRT listservs. The proposal to alter the makeup of the ACRL Membership Committee was discussed briefly; logistical problems with someone from our committee being a member include a conflict in meeting times, and possible over-extension in terms of meeting commitments. [A solution arose at Exec. Committee with Sue Erickson taking on this role while she serves simultaneously on the ACRL Membership Committee]. The Friday Social in Greek Town was at an interesting and pleasant venue. Watch ANSS-L for announcements for the Midwinter social. Lastly, Erin Daix was recognized for her service to the committee.
Review and Planning Committee
Anna L. DeMiller, Chair
Review & Planning Committee
Anna L. DeMiller, Chair
The Committee took one last look at the Manual and By-Laws revisions they have been working on for the last couple of years before presenting to the Executive Committee for approval at its June 23 meeting. Executive subsequently approved both the Manual and By-Laws by a 7-0 vote. The revised Manual will go up on the ANSSWeb shortly. The By-Laws will go forward to the ACRL By-laws Committee and if they approve the changes, will be on the 2004 ACRL elections ballot for voting by ANSS membership. The Committee also discussed Electronic/virtual membership on ANSS committees; they noted that given its charge, the Liaison Committee would be ideal for this. Virtual membership will be an item for further Committee discussion and recommendations. Another topic for further discussion may be strategic planning following the ACRL Board meeting in October.
DISCUSSION GROUP REPORTS
Anthropology Librarians Discussion Group
Gail Egbers, Convener
We did not have a formalized topic for discussion this year so we shared information and questions about various things happening in our libraries and in the field. Janet Steins gave a report on the changes going on at Harvard’s Tozzer Library and offered handouts with useful information. We also learned that RLG is now coding by language and it is moving off the Stanford mainframe. The Anthropological Index of the Royal Anthropological Institute is tracking users and may request a donation if you are a heavy user.
Discussion ideas for Midwinter in San Diego or Annual in Orlando include:
Web-based tutorials/active learning in anthropology;
Have someone from Melanesian Studies Resource;
Center UC San Diego give a report;
Working with distance education;
UCSB’s Anthropology on the Web;
Interested in being a co-convener? Contact Gail Egbers at egbersgl@plu.edu.
Criminal Justice/Criminology Discussion Group
Deborah Schaeffer, Convener
Getting to know the Canadians through Statistics Canada was the theme of CJC’s program. Lindsay Johnston, Government Publications Librarian at University of Alberta, provided a thorough look into Stats Canada and its products and services. Statistics Canada is the nation’s official statistical agency providing information on industrial, financial, and social activities. The Agency publishes about 900 titles per year, many of which are available electronically through its web site ( http://www.statscan.ca). The site offers free searching with links to both free and priced resources. Ms. Johnston highlighted many of the criminal justice resources for Canada’s communities which are accessible and mostly free. One pertinent report, Feasibility Study on the Crime Comparisons between Canada and the United States, is available free on the Internet. She also reported on Canada’s Depository Services Program for federal government publications, E-Stat, which gives statistical tables and analytical studies in article form, and the Canada Census, which is conducted every five years. Group members toured the Univ. of Toronto’s Centre of Criminology on Monday. We are very grateful to Tom Finlay, Manager, Criminal Information Service and Library, for his gracious hospitality.
A look forward was offered by the new conveners, Jon Harrison and Christina Smith. A representative from Sociological Abstracts, based in San Diego, will be giving a presentation to the Criminal Justice/Criminology Discussion Group at Mid-Winter, 2004, focusing on what the database has to offer for faculty and students researching criminology or criminal justice. ANSS members are welcome to attend.
Sociology Librarians Discussion Group
Sue Erickson and Shawn Nicholson, Co-conveners
Despite initial technical difficulties, Laine Ruus of the Data Library Service at the Univ. of Toronto, gave the presentation “Data Services in Canada: what, when, why and who” that included an explanation of data vs. statistics and how general reference (“normal librarians”) and data services interact. Ms. Ruus focused on training issues (teaching reference providers and student staff how to determine when reference resources are sufficient) and when data services need to be consulted. She discussed the differences between Canadian and United States data. Canada has silos of data with very restricted access through Research Data Centres. The Data Liberation Initiative is trying to address this through the Depository Libraries Program. At the end of the program, Ms. Ruus extended an invitation to visit the Data Library Services at the university. Her PowerPoint presentation is available at: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~laine/misc/acrl2003.ppt and the Data Library Service homepage at: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/datalib/.
News & Queries
ANSS-L Moves to ALA
ANSS-L, the section listserv, is now hosted by ALA. Anyone who wishes to be on the new list, including those who belonged to the old list, must subscribe by sending an e-mail to listproc@ala.org containing the message “SUBSCRIBE ANSS-L (your name)”.
Contact JoAnn Jacoby ( jacoby@uiuc.edu), the new ANSS-L Moderator, with any questions or concerns. Thanks are due to Stephen Macleod, who launched ANSS-L in 1994, for his many years of service as ANSS-L Moderator. Thank you, Steve!
GET INVOLVED IN ANSS!
ANSS-Web
Please visit our ANSS-Website to learn more about officers, committees, discussion groups, programs, and publications.
ANSS-L
To subscribe, send a message to listproc@ala.org. In the body of the message type “subscribe ANSS-L Firstname Lastname”.
Volunteer to Serve on a Committee (This form is also accessible here.)
ANSS is seeking volunteers for several committee assignments. Committee appointments require attendance at ALA Midwinter and Annual Conferences. To volunteer, please print and fill out this form, and then return it to:
Dr. Wade Kotter, ANSS Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Social Sciences Librarian
Stewart Library
Weber State University
2901 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2901
wkotter@weber.edu
Name, Title, Institution, Preferred Mailing Address:
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Telephone: _______________
FAX: ______________
E-mail: _____________________________________
Number of Years as Member of ANSS _______
Academic Background (Institutions, Dates, Relevant Subject Areas):
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Previous and current ALA or ACRL Committee Assignments:
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ALA or ACRL Offices Held:
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ANSS Experience (Committees, Offices):
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ANSS Committee Preferences (Be Specific):
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Anthropology and Sociology Background/Interests/ Publications (include state, local, regional):
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Signature _______________________
Date: _________________________
ANSS Currents (ISSN 0888-5559) is published by the Anthropology and Sociology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 50 East. Huron St., Chicago IL 60611; (800) 545-2433, ext. 2523. ����American Library Association, 2003.
Co-Editors: Shawn W. Nicholson, Michigan State University, 100 Library, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048, (517) 432-1749. nicho147@mail.lib.msu.edu
Mary M. Nofsinger, Holland/New Library, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-5610, (509) 335-8614. mnofsing@wsu.edu
ANSSWeb
http://www.lib.odu.edu/anss/
Production & Circulation Office: 50 East Huron St., Chicago IL 60611.
ANSS Currents is published semi-annually in May and November. Back issues are available from ALA/ACRL, 50 East Huron St., Chicago IL 60611.
Chair, 2003-04: James Haug, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, NHB 327/333, 10th Street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20560-0112. (202) 357-1819
haugj@si.edu
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 2003-04: Wade Kotter, Stewart Library, Weber State University, 2901 University Circle, Ogden, UT 84408-2901. (801) 626-7458
wkotter@weber.edu
_ Printed on recycled paper